UBank gathers transaction data for spending comparison site

NAB unit UBank has launched a site that pulls together anonymous transaction data to identify trends and allow visitors to compare their spending with that of their fellow Aussies.

The PeopleLikeU site has been built with UBank and NAB customer information, such as balances, savings goals, and mortgage details; census data; and spending numbers sourced from analytics firm Quantium.

With more than one billion numbers crunched, site users can search by area, gender, age, income and living factors to identify trends and insights and comare their habits to those of peers.

Says the site: "As humans we are naturally curious. Like, have you ever wondered hoe much other folks in your neighbourhood pay on their bills? Or how much it would cost to live in another city?"

Users can check to see where people choose to spend their money and time in different cities, carry out financial health checks by comparing their circumstances to peers, and predict their futures by adjusting their age and income.

Alex Twigg, CEO, UBank, told ITNews that the bank has worked with the Australian Privacy Commissioner and taken care to make sure all information used has been "de-identified".

"We've stripped out all of the names, addresses; all we know in PeopleLikeU data is what transaction occurred, when it occurred and how much it occurred for. Instead of having unique identifiers like names, account numbers, we've just allocated categories - the age of the customer, where they live, etcetera," says Twigg.